I said Hive Blogger because devs and nftgamers have a different user experience here. I came up with the cycle after reflecting on some shower thoughts.
The Initiation Phase:
This phase is characterized by people discover about the platform from a friend's referral, community notice, or randomly clicking links about crypto. They'll snoop into the platform figuring out what goes on here or be guided through an onboarding program.
The Bad:
The significance of this phase is setting an expectation for their interaction with the platform. The main objective to get people interested is answering the "what's in it for them?". Naturally telling people they can earn crypto from their shitposts is the biggest selling point. Entitlement has a bimodal distribution and this is the first part where a potential Hive user can have the a high self centered view about the platform.
I think it's unreasonable to expect they'll be spending their early days on the platform preaching I love crypto, the tech, the community, and Hive therefore I'll devote my time shitposting quality content. The main preoccupation here is trying to get some $ for their time because this is the selling point they were sold to try the platform.
The Remedy:
I believe the quality of the onboarder introducing the platform greatly influences the user experience of the person being onboarded. By setting up the realistic expectation that it's not instant money and one needs to navigate the social network hoops to be somewhere here, there's a lesser chance for them to rage quit being unnoticed by curators and develop the thick skin to pursue shitposting when nothing when initial attempts didn't work. The objective of a good onboarder here is preventing the fall out of disillusionment when they didn't get what they were sold about the free shitposting money.
A bad onboarder would just introduce the basics and leave their referred users to fend for their own and learn mistakes the hard way. But still have the sense they're doing the blockchain a solid by inviting more people in as if that immediately translates to value but the retention rates of their onboarded users will speak otherwise.
Imitation Phase
This phase is characterized by a series of kickstarting attempts at content creation. Where people who have never written an essay outside academic reasons, people who never picked up art materials, reflected about a show or book they read, starts to come up with ways to figure out a skill set to pump out content because it's what everyone else seems to be doing.
The imitation phase is exactly what it says when new users figure out what works and avoid what doesn't. This is where the quality of the onboarder also comes into play as the safest route is using what their role model is already using. During this time, if their efforts are rewarded well by the community, they'll be encouraged to try even more involved with what goes on the platform.
This is also the perfect time to for the new users to pick up good and bad habits from their seniors. The imitation phase is also when people realize the being a copy cat content creator may not be the best route as some posts from other authors are not just rewarded by the content shared but the merits these authors achieved throughout their tenure.
Another way of saying, you're not really upvoted because your content is that good, but because people like you and what you do for them, they'll give you a vote. The imitation phase dispels some of the preconceptions a Hiver has and integrations new expectations about the platform. So there is truth that you can earn easy money shitposting crypto but there's some hoops to get into while you're trying.
The Chasm
See the gap between the imitation and maintenance phase? That's the part of Hive user's life where majority wouldn't make it in the long term. It's characterized as post honeymoon phase when programs or curation initiatives cease to support the new user and are left to figure out what they want to do on Hive.
These are users who innately don't see the value of doing the grind long term and convert their short term games. Some of them will have the motivation to continue but find themselves at a disadvantage to get anyone even remotely interested at their stuff aside from immediate small network.
I mean, what did these people expect when they spent so little time getting to know the people in the ecosystem, busting out content that has no value, and being apathetic to community efforts. These will be the same type of people that wouldn't really go out of their way to build their social network but still expect others to notice them. The red flag is just seeing their barren comment section or plain thank you to people only responding to their posts.
Did didn't invest in building social bonds and wonder why nobody gives a flying fuck about them in the end. Or they probably imitated bad habits similar to publishing rubbish content.
The Chasm is a place when motivations to be involved in the Hive ecosystem is so low that quitting and taking the money is the most satisfying decision one could do. There's no far vision about the potential rewards they could have started receiving had they shed a little bit of introspection about where they went wrong.
My unpopular opinion about content creation on Hive will always be about the person mattering more than what they really share, because nobody would tip you money if they hated you. And it's never the right move to complain about why people don't vote for your stuff when you can't even be bothered to give a flying fuck about what they're into. And you can talk about how unfair curators can be with their favoritisms and social circles but at the individual level, everyone is a curator and everyone will likely find some people in the ecosystem whom they will readily upvote regardless of whatever is posted.
The deep abyss is a natural filter because it weeds out the people that are only going to stay during the good times. People flock to where value is and value seekers will eventually leave once the cash cow dries up. The Hive ecosystem may be sad that some of these users left the ecosystem, but I think of this natural phenomena as a necessary event to narrow down users we can build with during the long term.
The Maintenance Phase
This is the phase where everyone already knows how to play the game and the task is keeping their status quo, progress, or just chill existing on the sidelines. It's where the old-timers are at who figured out their niche communities, network and purpose.
You may notice some cracks in the line that resemble as mini fissures. Those are instances where old users will have episodes taking breaks from the platform or eventually leave. 9.5/10 it would be caused by downvotes or losing favor from friends curating them that prevents them from earning anything here anymore. It's really less about the free speech because most arguments related to downvotes will be against the liberation from oppression of rewards. Nobody will feel oppressed when they are upvoted. Nobody will ask why they are being upvoted but the moment they get some downvotes, they'll feel wronged and owed an explanation.
I can't recall the number of times where I contemplated about dropping a user a comment that I upvoted their post because I felt pity for their attempt at doing something rather than believing they did a good job. So far those intrusive thoughts haven't won yet but I'll leave an upvote here. They will never know. I'll take that secret to the grave.
The main goal of a user in this phase is to keep playing because the rewards will just accumulate. It's really about survival mode. We all have different reasons why we bother on Hive but I wouldn't call it bullshit if someone claims they're here to do good and help as much people as they can.
Heck, my own value creation on the ecosystem was always about teaching people how to thrive and use a piece of their earnings to reinvest for their financial well-being or managing a community that lets crypto influence their lives in a positive direction.
It's probably a bunch of hubris if I said this to my former self that started on the platform back in 2018, but this is what the maintenance phase in the cycle is about. Just figuring out what you want to do in the long term within the ecosystem and rewards just come secondary.
From experience, the ones that are ready to leave will always be the ones that didn't build anything meaningful here. No network, no project, nothing. And somehow some parts of the community don't like to see these users go. You can't even ass some of these people to link back their Hive profile from their other social media accounts, it's like they're ashamed of admitting they are earning here.
This is still a half-baked shitpost.
Notice me senpai.